Media misused my comment on Narendra Modi: Shatrughan Sinha

New Delhi: The Bharartiya Janata Party has reached out to MP Shatrughan Sinha on his alleged anti-Narendra Modi statements. Sinha recently praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying “there is no doubt that Nitish Kumar is PM material. He is definitely capable to do so”. He had also countered BJP President Rajnath Singh’s off-repeated comments that Modi is the most popular leader in the country.

Sources said on Sunday that BJP leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Yashwant Sinha and Shahnawaz Hussain spoke to Sinha over his anti-Modi comments after the BJP Parliamentary Party Executive Meeting at senior party leader LK Advani’s residence ended.

Sources said the issue has been resolved and the BJP MP has said that he will no more make comments against the Gujarat Chief Minister. Speaking to CNN-IBN, Sinha said, “I am a worker of the party and will continue to work for the party. Media used my statement out of context.”

The BJP leaders reportedly spoke to Sinha at the instance of party president Rajnath Singh, who believes anti-Modi statements are against the interest of the party.

Countering the BJP President’s comments on Modi’s popularity, Sinha had recently said, “Popularity alone cannot be the criterion. If that is the criterion, then the most popular person in the country today is Amitabh Bachchan. It is our wish that he becomes the President.”

Rubbishing Sinha’s statement, BJP spokesperson Hussain said, “Reel life and real life are different. The popularity in one is different from the popularity enjoyed in the other. In reel life, there is no doubt that Amitabh Bachchan is popular but in real life Modi enjoys huge popularity.”

While commenting on Bachchan being very popular, Sinha had also said that Advani should be the PM candidate. In a recent interview, the BJP MP had also said that Modi cannot become PM candidate without Advani’s blessings.